But When He Gives to Them A Righteous Child, They Ascribe to Him Partners in That Which He Has Given Them"

Allah , says:

"
It is He Who created you from a single being and made from it its mate, in order that he might dwell with her. When he united with her [in intercourse], she bore [i.e. becomes pregnant with] a light burden and she continued to carry it. When she grew heavy, they both prayed to Allah, their Lord: "If You give us a righteous child, good in every respect, we vow we shall be of the grateful ones." But when He gave them a righteous child, they ascribed to others a share in that which He had given them: But Allah is Exalted High above the partners they ascribe to Him"
(Qur'an 7:189-190 )

Allah , Most Glorified, Most High, informs us in these verses that He created mankind from a single human being, Adam (as
) and that He created from him a wife, Hawwa`,1 in order that they might live together in peace and harmony and that He created in them the desire for sexual intercourse and made it permissible to them, in order that they might enjoy complete stability and repose and that their progeny might continue to multiply. And when she became pregnant, they both called upon Allah , asking Him to give them a healthy, strong, righteous child and swearing that if He did so, they would be eternally be grateful to Him. But when Allah answered their supplications and gave them that which they had requested, they named him `Abdul Harith,2 thus ascribing others as partners with Allah ; and Allah is far above that which they attributed to Him.

Benefits Derived From These Verses

1. The superiority of man over woman in that he was created before her.

2. The preferability of marriage over bachelorhood.

3. The obligation to abstain from naming one's children with detestable names.

4. Evidence of the virtue of motherhood and of what a mother endures during pregnancy and childbirth.

7. The obligation to abstain from anthropomorphic concepts and ideas regarding Allah.

Relevance of These Verses to the Subject of the Chapter and to the Subject of Tawheed

That the verses prove the correctness of the saying of Ibn `Abbas (ra), who said that submission to other than Allah by naming one's children as slaves of other than Allah is Shirk.

On the authority of Ibn `Abbas (ra) it is reported that he said: "When Adam (as
) joined with her, she became pregnant and then Iblees came to her and said: "I am your companion, who caused you to be expelled from Paradise. Obey me, or I will cause your child to grow two horns like a deer by which he will puncture your belly when he comes out! So do it! Do it! Thus he tried to frightened them into naming their child `Abdul Harith, but they did not obey him and a dead child was born to them. When Hawwa` became pregnant a second time, Iblees again approached them and repeated the same demand but again they refused and the child was born dead. She became pregnant a third time and Iblees came to them and made the same demand, reminding them of what had happened before. At this point, they were overcome by love for their (unborn) child and named him `Abdul Harith and this is why Allah , the Almighty, the All-powerful said:

"
They ascribed to others a share in that which He had given them"
(Qur'an 7:190)

..ooOOoo..

Ibn `Abbas (ra) informs us in this narration that when Hawwa` became pregnant by Adam , Allah wished to test them and so He allowed Iblees to come to them and demand from them that they obey him by naming their child `Abdul Harith and he kept on repeating this demand with threats to the unborn foetus' life, until eventually they gave in out of fear for their child and acceded to his ultimatum and Allah then saved the child from death as a trial to them, in order to see whether they attributed its safety to Allah or another.3

Benefits Derived From This Narration

1. Confirmation of Iblees' enmity towards Adam (as
).

2. The obligation to avoid Satan and his evil whispering.

3. Iblees' persistence in seducing mankind.

4. That Allah may test a righteous person by afflicting him with calamities.

5. The weakness of man's resolve.

6. That love of one's children is a natural instinct with which Allah has endowed us.

7. The prohibition of naming anyone as slave of other than Allah .

Relevance of This Narration to the Subject of the Chapter and to the Subject of Tawheed

That it proves that naming one's child as slave of other than Allah is an act of Shirk.

..ooOOoo..

Also narrated by Ibn Abi Hatim, with an authentic sanad, 4 on the authority of Qatadah is the following: "They attributed partners to Him by obeying other than Him, not by worshiping him (Iblees)."

Relevance of This Narration to the Subject of the Chapter and to the Subject of Tawheed

That it proves that naming one's children as slaves of other than Allah is an act of Shirk.

It is also authentically narrated by Ibn Abi Hatim, on the authority of Mujahid, that he said concerning Allah's Words:"
If You give us a righteous child, good in every respect"
: "They were afraid that the child would not be human." The same thing was said by Al-Hasan, Sa'eed and others.

Mujahid informs us concerning the above mentioned Qur'anic verse that the reason for Adam and his wife's calling their son `Abdul Harith was out of fear that he would be born in a non-human form after Iblees had deceived them into believing that he had the power to do as he had threatened - May Allah's curse be upon him.